You will see more recent facts about the making of movies
Game adaptations are doing suprisingly well
When it came to making game-to-screen adaptations that felt really successful, 2023 was when Hollywood finally hit ‘Start’. First there was The Last Of Us on HBO – the long-form series adaptation of Naughty Dog’s apocalyptic epic proving another stellar storytelling experience on the small screen. While adapting the first game closely, it leant into the televisual, delivering some of the most acclaimed episodes of the year when 2023 had barely begun – most notably the Bill and Frank-centric ‘Long, Long Time’. Then, on the other end of the video game spectrum, The Super Mario Bros Movie blue-shelled the competition, making $1.3 billion at the box office – even if it wasn’t lavished with praise in reviews. Add in the smash opening weekend for Five Nights At Freddy’s, and the narrative of Hollywood’s video game curse is well and truly broken. Game on.
star Wars confirms three major new movies
Over the Easter weekend, London’s ExCeL centre was flooded with Jedi, Sith, Stormtroopers – and Andor cosplayers doing their best “One way out!” chants. Star Wars Celebration brought four days of geeky glee to the capital, and the big headline was Kathleen Kennedy announcing an upcoming movie slate. She detailed three new films, set at various points in the timeline: a ‘Biblical epic’ about the discover of The Force, tens of thousands of years before the Skywalker Saga films, to be directed by James Mangold; a big-screen outing for director Dave Filoni, bringing his ‘Mando-verse’ to cinemas; and, in a delight to Sequel Trilogy fans, the return of Rey in a film set 15 years post-The Rise Of Skywalker, with Daisy Ridley’s hero setting up a New Jedi Order, to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. May the Force be with all three projects – hopefully, none are shelved.